Friday, March 31, 2006

Kosovo government expects positive evaluation of Standards by UNSC in June

Text of report by Sami Kastrati entitled "Government expects positive evaluation by UNSC of Standards' fulfilment in June" published by the Kosovo Albanian newspaper Koha Ditore on 31 March

Prishtina [Pristina], 30 March: During a meeting with all the ministers who are heads of the working groups, as well as with the coordinators and others involved in the process of implementation of the Standards [for Kosovo] at the central level, Prime Minister Agim Ceku expressed his hope that the technical evaluation of the Standards' implementation by the UN Security Council, due for June, will be positive. Officials in charge of Standards implementation have drawn similar conclusions, based on the activities carried out to date.

"We believe that with the implementation of the Standards, the respective ministries will assume more responsibilities in their respective areas, and it is realistic to expect that the next technical evaluation, due to be carried out at the UN Security Council in June, will be positive," said Avni Arifi, Standards coordinator in the Kosova [Kosovo] government.

He explained that there will not be a new prioritization of the Standards after the recent government reshuffle, but their implementation will continue according to the government's three-month action plan adopted on 28 February.

"The action plan that was approved at the 28 February session is in progress. We cannot add other points to the plan. It is important that there is speed and efficiency in the implementation. The priorities were set earlier, and now it is only a matter of coordination to implement them so that we can have the best possible results," Arifi said after the meeting.

Arifi announced a swapping of assignments among the various ministries. According to him, the rule-of-law Standard has been transferred from the Public Services Ministry to the newly established Ministry of Justice, while the democratic functioning of institutions Standard has been transferred to the Public Services Ministry.

"There cannot be democratic functioning of institutions if there is no rule of law, and there cannot be a genuine economy if there is no democratic functioning of institutions and rule of law," Arifi said.

The Kosova government officials declined to say in which of the Standards the greatest progress has been made. "It is important that there has been parallel and consistent progress in all Standards," they said.

It has been reported that during Prime Minister Ceku's meeting with the working groups and coordinators, stronger inter-ministerial cooperation was urged in the efforts for the Standards' implementation. From now on, meetings at this level will be held twice a week for each ministry to present its achievements in the implementation of Standards.